They surveyed people in China, Turkey, Israel, England, Russia, India, Italy and the United States.

The most appealing thing about Canada? 40% of Chinese, 55% of English and 68% of Italians cited “natural environment”.

Meanwhile, “quality of life” was the top selling point for 47% of Israelis, 48% of Americans and 51% of Turks – but quality of life was a term left in the eye of the beholder, with no clear definition.

“The highest approval for Canada's multi-ethnic nature came from the Turks and the Chinese, and only about one in 10 of them cited it.”

What’s least appealing? Israel, Turkey and Italy refer to our cold climate. 45% of Americans point the finger at high taxes. “Another perceived failing, for 13 per cent of Americans, is that Canada is too "U.S.-oriented." This perceived American domination was considered Canada's largest failing by Russians, and was the second or third-ranked Canadian flaw named by the British, Indians, Turks and Chinese.”

And 1 in 7 Turks think we’re boring.

But when it came to Canadian affairs, how did these countries rank? Who do you suppose knows the most about Canada? Barely more than 60 years ago we were considered British subjects here. We have a high number of Chinese and Indian immigrants. And we make fun of Americans for knowing nothing about Canada all the time…

And boy, are we wrong. For the questions about Canadian affairs, “Only the Americans passed, with a score of 57. An impressive 91 of Americans knew the Canadian dollar was worth more than the U.S. greenback at the time of the survey, and 86 per cent knew that same-sex marriage was legal in Canada - by far the highest international scores. Last in Canadian knowledge among the countries, with a score of just 17 per cent, is the United Kingdom.”

Sort of explains my memories of wandering around Hyde Park and having someone, upon discovering I was Canadian, say “Oh the colonies.” Anyone who starts in with that nonsense proves their age, I guess.

“Curiously, there is a huge upside to this blissful ignorance: to not know Canada, apparently, is to love it. "There is a lot of ignorance about Canada but there are also these positive perceptions, kind of like this halo of positive expectation," says Grenville. "We get the benefit of the doubt. They don't really know us but they're pretty sure we're nice," he says. "So we get away with a few things."

On the issue of the environment, for example, a majority of respondents in every country but the U.S. pegged Canada as a leader in fighting climate change, and in cutting greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, we are one of the worst per-capita emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. Fewer than 10 per cent of those from other countries, with the exception of the U.S., realized this. Canada coasts on a green image that is mostly illusion and delusion, says environmentalist David Suzuki. He points to a recent assessment by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development. It found that for 25 key environmental indicators, Canada ranked 28th out of 29 OECD countries. "Most Canadians are shocked to hear that," he says.

“Canadians also get credit (or the blame, depending on your point of view) for their military operations overseas - and for a few in which the country is not actually involved. A remarkable 93 per cent of Americans know Canada has troops on the ground in Afghanistan. (Only the British, 80 per cent, and Russians, 95 per cent, say either they don't know or don't think Canadian troops are deployed there.) Fewer than a third of respondents around the world know that Canada doesn't have a presence in Darfur. And only in one country - Turkey, with a substantial Muslim population - did a majority of respondents know Canada isn't in Iraq. In what may be the cheapest war Canada never fought, half of Americans think Canadian soldiers are shooting it out in Iraq. Reid finds that astonishing considering the abuse Canada took four years ago for not enlisting in U.S. President George W. Bush's so-called coalition of the willing.”

“A majority of American respondents (55 per cent) consider the Northwest Passage to be Canadian waters - making the U.S. the only country besides Canada(at 66 per cent)to believe this. By contrast, seven out of every 10 Russians consider the passage an international waterway, while the rest of the nations surveyed, not to put too fine a point on it, couldn't care less.”

Okay, okay, forgive me for quoting huge chunks of this article, but this is fascinating stuff. I’m often foaming at the mouth over how the media dispenses with reality and manipulates perception, and this type of survey proves the point. The words of a few politicians (about the Arctic, for example) get splashed across the newspapers and we assume it represents how Americans feel.

In fact, I think we often blame Americans for a lot of things that begin and end with the stupidity of a few key politicians.

How do the results stack up to Canadian responses?

“Canadians, however, have a host of misgivings about their country: its lack of independence from America's influence, the compromised integrity of its government systems, its limited impact on world affairs. Simply put, the world is in love with a country that doubts its own worth.”

“An astonishing three-quarters of Canadians disagreed with this statement: "Everyone, no matter who they are, is treated in the same way by the justice system in my country." There could be many reasons for this: numerous examples of wrongful convictions, dating back to Steven Truscott; Canada's role in facilitating the torture in Syria of Maher Arar; the inability of police and the courts to stem the rising tide of gang violence; the failure of the Air India bombing investigation to yield a single murder conviction. Only Russians (90 per cent) and Turks (80 per cent) have a harsher view of their justice systems.

“The opinion Canadians hold of the honesty of their institutions isn't much better. Half (48 per cent) call "corruption a big problem in my country." This bleak view may be coloured by recent memories of the sponsorship scandal that helped topple the federal Liberals.”

“Almost 70 per cent of Americans see Canada "as a global leader in working for human rights and peace in the world." Just 35 per cent of Canadians define themselves that way. Britain, Italy, India, Israel, Turkey and China all rate Canada's human rights performance higher than Canadians do themselves.”

Statistics have never been so fascinating to me at 7 am…. Or, I think, ever.

Back when I was first trying to get published, I’d long heard that I wouldn’t stand a chance of selling a Canadian-based series in the US. I couldn’t even sell it in Canada. The rejection letters I got didn’t go to writing – they went to the content. Publishers did not want to show that side of Canada. The same issues cropped up in the agent search. I wanted to try UK publishers but stopped short of submitting to my dream publisher because I couldn’t get an agent at the time (although they take non-agented submissions).

What I learned through the process was that the reality of Canada isn’t something the rest of the world sees clearly. We’re nice. We do what’s right. We don’t have a lot of crime. Surveys like the one reported on by Angus Reid here highlight the problem.

Meanwhile, I contrast that to the fact that a major RCMP investigation was compromised because of the ongoing problems within the RCMP.

I’ve always believed in crime fiction’s ability to make social commentary. I’ve always been very interested in social issues, and I see crime fiction as a natural forum for addressing them. Often safely. My threshold with true crime is limited by the knowledge of the reality – I can’t stomach reading too much about what someone really did to another person.

In crime fiction, the knowledge that it isn’t real (although it could be) gives me enough emotional distance to look at the repercussions of crime, to begin to address the issues.

While others believe there’s no place for politics in crime fiction, I see it as often the root of a lot of problems. The WIRE (season 5 discussion here) proves the point. Political maneuvering allows criminals to stay on the streets…

Just look at that article on the RCMP.

Okay, so I’ve proved my point here. There’s crime in Canada. The RCMP – while still a respected police force – has issues that need to be addressed.

What’s the problem? How do you market a series that touches on the less-than-perfect side of our national police force and tackles realistic crimes that haven’t been glossed over to a world that has unrealistic, idealistic, impressions of our country?

I won’t be the first to show the less-than-glowing side of Canada, or even the RCMP. The one hope is that the growing public awareness of the problems will help readers bridge the gap between our image and our reality.

I’m a firm believer that you don’t fix problems by denying their existence. Pretending everything’s fine is the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand on the beach as a hurricane is about to make landfall. You might not be able to see it, or really hear it, but it doesn’t mean it won’t kill you. Pointing out some of our problems isn’t about just tearing us down – it’s about saying we can be better than we are, and this is what we need to fix to make that happen.

Thanks for the kind words. And I was just about to say, Sandra, stop giving away my material!

Great post. It's all so true. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact we're a young country, we're insecure like a teenager and not nearly as ready as even Edinburgh was to see its 'seedy' side on display. But the world is working in fast motion these days, so it may not take another two hundred years. We'll see what we can do to push that along, won't we Sandra?

(you know, thirty years ago Vancouver and Toronto were the colonies -- maybe not officially, but they were both very WASP cities far more concerned with news from London than from each other)

I also think you're right Sandra that there's room for politics in crime fiction. It's kind of a circular argument here -- we Canadians think our country is so nice because we have no literature (or other cultural) showing the 'real' Canada and at the same time we're too insecure to show the 'real' Canada. And politics are at the root of somuch of it.

The problems with the RCMP you mention are only a little 'within' the force - and really you almost can't call the political-appointed leadership 'within' the force. There may or may not be a huge rift coming between the RCMP and the crown prosecutors (whose job it is to get those convictions), but something's sure simmering. All those stress leaves may have something to do with it being the only protest available to the rank and file. And on and on.

The point is, Vancouver, Toronto, Edinburgh, Detroit, Miami, Bangkok, Dublin, Chicago, etc., etc., are all on the same playing field these days. That attitude about setting is so yesterday. Unfortunately, so is much of the Canadian publishing industry.

"The point is, Vancouver, Toronto, Edinburgh, Detroit, Miami, Bangkok, Dublin, Chicago, etc., etc., are all on the same playing field these days. That attitude about setting is so yesterday. Unfortunately, so is much of the Canadian publishing industry."

Oh, hell yeah.

And this got me thinking about part of the storyline in EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE...

New Blog Address

I'll still do teasers here for the new blog for a while until people have a chance to update their links, but commenting on this blog has been disabled.

THE FRAILTY OF FLESH

What are they saying about THE FRAILTY OF FLESH?

"Sandra Ruttan's sequel to What Burns Within... is better than the first. A four-year-old is beaten to death in a park. The child's brother, hiding in the nearby brush, claims that his older sister killed the boy. Furthermore, the sister is missing.

"Criminous kids are bad enough, but Ruttan, a disciple of the Val McDermid school, takes things a bit further. To say more is to give away a terrific plot."

- Margaret Cannon, THE GLOBE AND MAIL

"The fallout from the last time their cases intersected still haunts the three major protagonists in this stark procedural. Each is haunted by major baggage that can't help but affect current cases. The talented Ruttan turns a spotlight on the gritty reality of law enforcement for these Canadian constables, and the result is truly convoluted and disturbing."

- Romantic Times Book Reviews

"Ruttan's complex web of dialogue and narrative leads us gradually deeper into the lives of those caught up in the crime, including the detectives, creating a distinctive and potent novel...

"In the gap before the relase of further installments in the series it would be interesting to go back and reread the first two novels, to dig deeper into things only partly revealed about the three detectives and even about the cases already investigated. Ruttan's ability to pique the curiosity of the reader even about novels already read once (and even read recently) is a testament to the intricacy of her stories and the depth of her characters."

- Glenn Harper, International Noir Fiction

"Ruttan is Ian Rankin with ovaries."

- Jen Jordan, Crimespree Magazine

"The Frailty of Flesh is not only one of the best procedural thrillers I've read in a long time... but the ending knocked me right out of my seat."

- Crime Scene Scotland

"The Frailty of Flesh raises difficult questions and shuns easy answers. Sandra Ruttan writes with passion and honesty about every parent’s worst nightmare and the result is an emotionally wrenching experience."

- Sean Chercover, Shamus Award-Winning author of Big City, Bad Blood

"The complexity of the relationships among the players as well as the cases, past and present, are riveting. Whatever one might guess as to where the author is taking you, nothing can prepare the reader for the shocking resolution.

"The three protagonists are each skillfully drawn and certain to have Ms. Ruttan's readers anxious to know them better."

OUT NOW!

"Ruttan manages to keep multiple leads and seconds on the same page admirably... the straight proceduralism from Ruttan serves the story well through the rewarding climax."--Publishers Weekly

"A sizzling story by one of crime fiction's hot new voices."-- Rick Mofina, internationally best-selling author of A PERFECT GRAVE

"This story features a triple mystery and three main characters, who are interesting not only for their tangled group dynamic but also as individuals. The subject matter obviously is very grim, but the occasional banter between the constables helps to take the edge off. This is a good start to a new series I think will appeal to a variety of mystery lovers."--Fresh Fiction

"Sandra Ruttan writes with utter ferocity. Twists and turns that stun and dialog that absolutely crackles with wit and authenticity. With each page, Ruttan delivers the goods. WHAT BURNS WITHIN is a nonstop chiller of a mystery that keeps you turning the pages."-- GREGG OLSEN, New York Times Bestselling Author of A WICKED SNOW

"Promising talent Ruttan sets her gritty new detective series in Vancouver. It has a hard-edged feel and intriguing characters. ...this is a good start to an intriguing series."--Romantic Times Book Reviews

"Short and snappy chapters, terse dialogue, staccato delivery of minimalist descriptions -- Ruttan's style harks back to the classic hardboiled era....Ruttan is very much a shower rather than a teller: there are very few internal monologues to be heard in WHAT BURNS WITHIN, the subtleties of the characters' complex psychologies being drawn out through their interactions with their colleagues. That's a difficult skill to make invisible, but it's one of Ruttan's most effective weapons."--Declan Burke, Crime Always Pays

"Ruttan effortlessly brings to life a varied cast of complex characters. She writes with tremendous passion, honesty and skill. This is a story you will care about."-- Allan Guthrie, Edgar Nominated Author of KISS HER GOODBYE

"A totally mesmerizing narrative and a plot that burns off the page."-- Ken Bruen, Shamus Award-Winning Author of THE GUARDS

“WHAT BURNS WITHIN reads like a favorite television series. A large cast, lots of dialogue to advance the plot, a great setting, and well-drawn characters make for a compelling police procedural.”-- Anne Frasier, USA Today Bestselling Author of HUSH, SLEEP TIGHT & PLAY DEAD